


20 Years

by she_is_destroyer_of_worlds



Series: Escapril 2020: Harry Potter [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Harry Potter - Freeform, Harry being sad about his parents, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter Friendship, Hermione Granger is a Good Friend, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Sad Harry Potter, Sad and Happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:14:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/she_is_destroyer_of_worlds/pseuds/she_is_destroyer_of_worlds
Summary: Harry misses his parents as the 20th anniversary of their death nears.Based on Escapril prompt 2: Growth / Decay
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter
Series: Escapril 2020: Harry Potter [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1689352
Kudos: 10





	20 Years

**Author's Note:**

> For the month of April, I'm writing very tiny Harry Potter themed mini-fics based around the Escapril Prompts posted by @letsescapril on Instagram. Stay tuned each day!

“Harry, are you alright?”  
Hermione’s voice broke through the silence and knocked Harry out of his head and back into the room.  
“What?” he asked.  
She looked over at him, her eyes concerned. “You just seemed...distant,” she replied.  
Harry shrugged his shoulders and tried to brush it off. “It’s nothing,” he muttered, “doesn’t matter.”  
Hermione put her book down and slid out of her armchair onto the carpet where Harry sat. The fire glowed in her eyes as she looked over at him. “You’re obviously upset, Harry,” she said.   
Harry rubbed his bleary eyes and looked around the sitting room of the Burrow. Ron was passed out on the couch, lightly snoring. Everyone else had already gone to bed. For a moment Harry couldn’t help but be reminded of all their late nights in the Gryffindor common room that had ended like this, with just the three of them and a cozy fire. The thought of it made him smile for a moment. He sighed before turning back to Hermione.  
“It’s almost Halloween and I…I can’t stop thinking about them,” he said quietly.  
He was relieved that Hermione was quick to catch on about who he was referring to.   
“It’s been 20 years, right?” she asked, her voice cautious and soft.  
“Yeah,” Harry replied, sighing again as he stared into the fire.  
The room was quiet except for the crackle of the fire and Ron’s snores as they sat beside each other.  
“They were 21 when they died,” he said quietly. “They’d always seemed so old in my head because they were my parents, but now I’m 21 and I can’t stop thinking about how young they were. And how unfair it is that they had to make such terrible decisions.”  
Harry thought back to the last time he’d seen them in person, the Resurrection Stone gripped tightly in his hand as they’d stood with him in the forest. He’d replayed that moment over and over again in his head. He had always pictured them to be so much older, to look at least the age of Sirius or Lupin when he’d known them. And when he’d first stared at them in the Mirror of Erised, his 11 year old self had seen them as his parents and hadn’t thought about their age, only that they were there, finally, with him. But when his 17 year old self stood before them, all he’d thought about was how close in age they seemed to him and his friends. How he could suddenly look at James in the eyes, and see a young man staring back at him, barely older than Harry himself. It reminded him that this war had always been fought by the young, that they had always been the ones to carry the greatest burden. He’d always known that firsthand.  
Hermione leaned into Harry. “People are willing to do the most unfathomable things to protect the people they love. You of all people know that quite well.”  
Harry looked back at her. “You as well,” he said.  
She gave him a soft smile and then looked back at the fire. “We’re almost 22 and we’ve lived a thousand lifetimes. You especially.”  
Harry tried not to think about the list he kept in his head of those he’d lost. Sometimes he got lost in it, kept up at night by their names, by their faces staring back at him in dreams. But these days, it was especially James and Lily. Always James and Lily. Harry fidgeted his hands, trying his best to put his thoughts into words.  
“It just feels weird to reach an age that they never did, y’know? It feels almost wrong. I get to keep getting older and they don’t.”  
“I know, it’s not fair. None of this has ever been fair,” she replied. “But they get to live on through you. They may not be physically here but you carry them with you, always.”  
Harry hadn’t realized he was crying until he started sniffling, but was grateful that Hermione mentioned nothing of it.  
“We could go with you,” she said instead, “to Godric’s Hollow this year. Ron, Ginny and I. If you don’t want to go alone.”  
“I’d like that,” Harry replied quietly.

He knew Hermione had her own nightmares to keep at bay, her own people to mourn as well. This war had not been kind to any of them. And yet she’d always kept her head held high, her eyes always forward, always reminding Harry that the hat had placed her in Gryffindor for a reason. His heart burst in gratitude for her.  
Harry leaned his head against Hermione’s for an instant. “Thank you Hermione,” he whispered, “for everything.”  
He couldn’t fit a lifetime of thanks in a single phrase but he knew all the same that they’d both learned long ago that their friendship went beyond words.  
She smiled at him, her reply clear in her eyes. Then she yawned and stretched out.  
“Let’s go to bed, Harry,” she said quietly, getting to her feet and reaching out a hand for Harry.   
They both glanced over at Ron who was still snoring on the couch.  
“So,” Harry laughed, “which one of us wants to wake him up?”


End file.
